WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum steps down from Facebook

WhatsApp's CEO is leaving their parent company Facebook citing disagreements with their management of user data. Image; Compfight

Jan Koum, CEO, and Co-founder of WhatsApp, has announced his departure from Facebook as well as his already executed desire to cut ties with the social media platform. It is speculated that Koum will be leaving due to differences concerning the management of data sharing and encryption, and reports show that the former CEO will now be working on his cars and play ultimate Frisbee.

The date of his departure has yet to be confirmed, but Koum, who had a seat at Facebook’s board of directors over the last few years, has been reported to have some disagreements over personal data collection, as his working area relies in one of the largest and most successful messaging apps currently in the world.

However, not everything was bitterness regarding Koum. He said his piece through a Facebook post in which he stated his gratefulness to his team, and those who helped improving reliability on WhatsApp and making it a global app.

SCOOP: WhatsApp founder Jan Koum is leaving the company after years of clashes with Facebook’s management over data privacy, weakening encryption, and how to make money off WhatsApp. https://t.co/2bVpfRqR4i

Koum’s farewell: why he’s leaving Facebook

He posted via his Facebook page, “I’m leaving at a time when people are using WhatsApp in more ways than I could have imagined. The team is stronger than ever and it’ll continue to do amazing things. I’m taking some time off to do things I enjoy outside of technology, such as collecting rare air-cooled Porsches, working on my cars and playing ultimate Frisbee”.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook gave his farewell to Koum, saying that he will miss the closeness during working hours, and thanking him for ‘all he’s done to help connect the world.” Zuckerberg did mention, however, how Koum taught him about encryption and its capability to “take power away from centralized systems and giving it back to the people.”

According to The Washington Post, Koum is leaving due to concerns over alleged plans to weaken WhatsApp’s encryption and end-to-end encryption features of the app which spreads the content and data of the text as it travels. According to Newsweek, it is believed that the decision was made by the executive before the Cambridge Analytica exposé.

Internal WhatsApp disagreement

As reported by several sources now Koum has had disagreements regarding data and encryption management, but there have been other reports of several employees who are said to have been affected morally over the data misusage of the Facebook-owned company, according to The Washington Post, these workers are planning to leave the company this November.